Thank you for the posts guys, it does give me some insight. I guess I should have mentioned in my previous car history every single one of my car have been modified. Heck, even my wife's '08 Acura MDX is modified cosmetically to the way I want it.

But for some reason I have not much desire to mod out the my own BRZ. I feel it like OEM just feels so right. I guess I'm just going through a different phase.

Of course though everyone is entitled to do anything they want with their own cars, and I love some of the setups you guys have out there, and the modding community is alive and kicking! But it sort of reminds me about EVOs or NSX's. You can rarely find any of those in stock trim and when I do find a stock one, its more appealing to me.

So you're saying there will be fewer stock than I could even imagine?

:bonk:

Makes me even happier in my decisions. :bellyroll:

I did hear that KW V3's are supposedly better ride quality-wise because of superior damping. I can tell you that my Eibach Sportlines do not make the ride better. Not with stock struts, anyway.

I'm keeping mine mainly stock, however I have added a few things such as a Reverse Camera, Larger Exhaust Tips, Subwoofer, Tinted Windows, and Shark Fin Antenna. Very minor upgrades I think.

I am glad to see people enjoying these cars totally stock or with only very minor personal touches (mirror, etc) because there's a lot to be said for a long-term development. Spend a few years stock, do a small modification, spend another few years. Before you know it, the car has become part of your family and is in the background of many photos in your album. It's a beautiful thing.

I hope so. I've never owned a car longer than 21 months so far.

11th times a charm?

Different strokes for different folks. I am sure changing a car every 21 months is enjoyable in it's own way.

What was the point of typing this? It's clearly wrong, since I said it. PSS is too much grip for this car and kill the playfulness at street-legal speeds. Now that it's not my DD, I'm putting it on OEM Michelins.

Think the designers/engineers said they wanted to give us a blank slate and they sent the plans to over 90 aftermarket companies so they can make parts, cant remember which video or writing i saw it in. So that makes me think they over built the car and want us to individualize our cars. If they made the car to drift, they had to over build important parts, least thats my reasoning.

Actually I think it is more like they wanted to build a great chassis for everyone to enjoy and have fun with, and if tuners or customers want to modify it further, they will have a great chassis from the ground up to work with. I think the quote was something like "People can modify a car all they want, but they can't modify the core design of the car, so it is our job to make a great chassis" Subaru engineer said that I think. Somethinggggggggg like that I can't remember exactly.

Buy your own set, I have other cars these are going to be mounted on.

I'm fine with the stock look, all I've done is added the JDM tips and I'm buying another set of rims, but my plans after that are minor, probably some clear side indicators and maybe a shark fin antenna. I bought the car I wanted, not the car I want to take forever to build.

while i've done minor cosmetic mods to my BRZ, i don't mind the stock look except for one thing - the wheel gap and the way the rear stock wheels are 'recessed'. with 20mm spacers in the rear, the stock wheels don't look half bad.

Enjoy the understeer.

enjoy your stock car.

I am.

great! :thumbup:

I know what you mean about the rear wheels looking recessed. It looks so measly and tucked in.

I plan on doing very simple cosmetic mods, and of course drop and rims in the first year. After my warranty is up and spare cash laying around Im going to have some real fun.

Glad to see another Bay Area BRZ owner, make sure to hit up the NorCal thread :thumbsup:

I just plasti dipped the wheels black, besides that it's all stock. I've had mine for over a year. Everyone says I need an exhaust, I like a deep sound, but I think it would sound too fake with one. Not to mention it's expensive. Anyway I love my Subby just the way she is, I don't have any plans to modify anything else.

Mines pretty clean looking just had to fix the ugly/iritating parts with better

All of my past cars have remained stock. Though I'm still a few months out from buying one of the 14's, I have a few simple things planned: OEM armrest, Toms Tail lights, OEM Audio upgrade, with new rims and tyres eventually as well.

I personally prefer a more subtle look to the car in terms of upgrades.

For the life of me I cannot understand why they did not go with clear side markers vs the amber ones. The clear ones really make a difference IMHO.

I believe they had to go with amber for legal reasons.

The only thing I didn't like about the stock setup was the wimpy looking exhaust tips on the North American version (Does Canada get the same tips that the States get?), the not so empowered exhaust noise, and the sound tube. So the mods I've done to remedy those are catback exhaust + front pipe and inlet hose to delete the sound tube. I also replaced the engine air filter with a foam filter just because.

Everything else is stock (including wheels). I'm completely satisfied with the car now, so I do not plan to do any other mods unless something needs to be replaced (such as doing coilovers when the struts need replacing).

So my dad has had 3 generations of Supras (including MkIV TT), '69 Mustang, '88 Firebird... never ever modded anything on any of them. Now he has a WRB BRZ Limited (like me) and never intended to mod it... but I keep pushing things on him. He's got the GrimmSpeed license plate relocator kit, gave him my JDM exhaust tips, and bought FR-S dash panels and Carsmo armrest for him. He likes all of it. Now he wants Tom's lights like I have. His car still looks mostly stock just with little touches that enhance.

I kept my MR-S visually stock and, after I sold that, my last 3 sports cars that followed (MR2, MR2 Turbo, and G35) were completely stock (sold off any aftermarket parts already on them and bought stock parts to restore to stock). There's something nice about "preserving" older sports cars by keeping them completely stock while everyone else's are modded out. And when the BRZ came out, I tried to keep the same mindset. But the ride height bugged me. The engineers intended for it to be lower for truer sports car handling. The suspension geometry is ideal at 20 +/-5mm lower than stock height according to a PM exchange I had with Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada. But to clear dips/curbs/parking stops and be public road-friendly, they lifted it to monster truck stratification. :bellyroll: Also, everyone else's BRZ was stock when I got mine and I don't like being like everyone else. Parts available for this car were too sublime to ignore. With the BRZ, it can't be helped. It's meant to be tinkered with, with "hooks" in place from the factory for modding. So I'm having at it, the way it was intended. Kept all my stock parts in case I want to be "different" and revert to stock when every BRZ I see is modded out later on. :)

"Stock" is such a relative term. I've spent my money trying to make my interior more JDM, closer to the GT-86. "Stock" to me means that one doesn't know any better about what can be improved upon.

I was quick to remove the orange side markers since the car looks much cleaner without them. JDM comes with underbody aero panels. Also, if you got a lower trim model, having stock parts from an upper trim can be highly rewarding.

I guess it just depends on what you're going for. Most people want the car to be unique to them. I want my car to essentially be more show than go, but I would like it to be a capable autox car, which is why I'm even bothering with suspension bits.

My body fat absorbs most of the extra NVH from making the car stiffer anyways. :lol:

It also means that one does know that improving something usually comes at the expense of screwing up something else.

Improving something is fine, if it preserves the rest. Out of all those who try to 'improve' the car, only a small percentage will succeed. The rest will "improve" something and screw up something else, for example handing (crappy lowering hardware, bad damping, crazy understeer-inducing spacers etc). Properly "improving", while preserving the rest is expensive.

P.S.: don't care about "unique", I'm not a teen/tween any more, and not having a mid-life crisis either (yet?).

Fair enough. I guess the interesting part is that a stock car is really just a blank canvas. Not to be offensive, but generally when I see someone purchase a performance car and do NOTHING to it and they're not an older person (60+ years old), then I tend to think that they have zero imagination, aspirations or personality. Or, more likely, they're too cheap to spend money on anything "extra".

Are there exceptions? Sure. There always are. I do mean "generally." I'm obviously not saying this about you because I don't even know you beyond your last reply. I have a friend with a BRZ that has only done exhaust and another that has only swapped wheels. Beyond that they're both completely satisfied with the BRZ in stock form. They'd admit that they're not into parting ways with their hard-earned money nor do they have the imagination to think up modifications all the time.

"Improvements" are relative to goals. If you have no goals then there's nothing to improve. The large wheel gap is in the BRZ is an unnecessary byproduct. It works for SUVs or Subarus that are guaranteed to ride through tall snow, but for a RWD sports car, the wheel gap just BEGS for attention/modification.

The stock tires allow for turning sideways. Do you LIKE turning sideways? If you're that fun to WANT to turn sideways then you'll probably be interesting enough to mod SOMETHING on your car. Or, do you prefer being "safer" and having more grip? Well, then you'll have to "mod" your wheels by getting more appropriate tires for consistent gripping. Do you see how relative that is? If you want ultimate grip while not adding a bunch of weight, then your research may lead you to Michelin Pilot Super Sports or Continental Extreme Contact DW tires. If you live somewhere with a chance of snow or just low temps then you'll probably opt to not keep your summer tires.

Do you garage your BRZ during the winter months? If so, then you don't even have to worry about tires. However, just know that in your effort to not be unique, if you do keep your BRZ stock and garage it and keep the miles low, eventually your BRZ WILL be unique inadvertently. :lol:

I'm not trying to bust anyone's balls, but let's not get a superiority complex over either wanting to keep the car stock or modifying it. I'm actually jealous that someone has the strength to keep this car stock. I mean, you can honestly look at the speaker surrounds and center console knee resting area and say that you wouldn't prefer to have matching leather with red stitching as the car was INTENDED to have? It's more comfortable AND the interior looks way more complete. And you really don't think the Toyota armrest would be a welcomed addition?

I'm getting leather knee pads only because I'm tired of banging my knee in to the plastic. I could do without any more red stitching. I'm undecided so far on whether I'd LIKE an arm rest - the storage in the car is already so limited I like having it open. I certainly don't get bewildered by people who don't want them.

If it weren't for stock class in autox, I don't know where I'd be with this car right now (actually, I probably wouldn't have bought it). But I've done the super-stiff-minimal-gain suspension thing, spent lots of money on cars trying to make them go fast and look right.

I started autoxing 10 years ago and slowly I started to notice that the old guys were pretty much all running in stock class. Not old guys that just started going it. Guys that were probably me 20 years ago. They spent a ton of money prepping cars, making them less comfortable and shaking parts loose with stiff springs and poly bushings, and realized you really don't get all that much out of it.

I hover around the top 15-20% of raw times week after week in a car with just tires, a catback and front sway bar. I'm faster than guys with full exhausts, wider wheels, tunes, coilovers, etc etc. Not because of my (limited) talent but because I did the right things to the car.

And in a lot of cases I have the opposite irrational superiority complex. I see people buying the worst bang for the buck parts they can, adding parts that make the car slower and so on. Strut bars, getting all caught up in which catback to buy (as if they're any different), coilovers with crappy tires. People are going to do what they want to do, and other people are going to disagree with it.

You're inspiring! :thumbup:

As someone who lands squarely in between...I am most certainly having a quarter-life crisis and require "unique."

I say "who cares?" Some of us have more important things to think about than whether the area your knee rests on matches the seats.

This will be offensive to about 99% of the population. A lot of creative people drive super-boring cars because it's just an appliance to them. Some of them will a nicer appliance (BRZ/FRS), but they will still think that people like you probably have too much money, so that you don't know what else to do with it other than throw it at their car :D
This is an example of what's wrong in generalizing your own view.

I like the car as is, with OEM rubber. It's a nimble playful coupe with enough grip for regular driving and enough slip when I want it to slip.
This car is not a 'blank canvas' to most buyers. It's an attractive package of features not present in anything else at the price. I'm sure it's a 'blank canvas' to some, but somehow I think that to those some every car is a canvas. I don't expect to see a lot of support for this view here, mostly because the forums are a concentration of people who are looking for information to modify their cars.

The majority of BRZ/FR-S owners I've chatted with in parking lots/gas stations etc are not on the forums.

Wheel gap, non-flush wheels etc - it's a taste preference of a small fraction of population. A small fraction that is vocal on automotive forums. I have nothing against this preference, I mildly like it, but I'm not prepared to lose suspension travel or overload the wheel bearings just for a marginal improvement.

Ah. Good points! I guess you're right. I do look at every car and think, "What can be improved upon?" hahaha

I got a broken silverware piece caught in my rear tire weeks ago and replaced them both with all-seasons with a wider width. I really miss the stock tires. I was getting so used to turning with them. The new ones screech like crazy. So, in that regard, I definitely agree with you about the tires. I actually prefer more play, which is why I seriously considered the FR-S. But, I wanted my little amenities, too.

Okay, so let's be REALLY honest here... You're actually okay with the stock sound system and NAV?

Except that area is harder than the JDM knee pads, so it rubs and hurts after long periods of driving. I drive a lot.

QFT.
I've driven some STX/STU-prepped cars that were slower than stock, lol.

Why? Is your brz/frs not 'unique' enough? How many do you see every day? I'm sure some semi-rich college kid from Cali with a white FR-S can feel not unique due to seeing another white FR-S on campus parking.

I get what he's saying but where he sees "blank canvas" I see "money pit." But honestly, the work you do to a car is all for greatly diminishing returns. Almost all of the performance gain you're going to get out of a car is in the tires. Sway bars will do most of the rest. Most coilovers people on these forums buy will make it worse. Same deal visually. Wheels are what people will notice.